Microsoft recently released the September monthly update KB5066835 for Windows 11 version 25H2. They have now acknowledged and confirmed two new issues after the installation of update on devices.

After this update, smartcard authentication issues might occur also USB mouse and keyboard not working in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). Check out the full details below:

First Issue:

Smart card authentication and other certificate operations might intentionally fail after installing Windows Updates released on or after October 14, 2025 (KB5066835) that contain protections for the security vulnerability, CVE-2024-30098. As part of this cryptography improvement, RSA-based smart card certificates are required to use KSP (Key Storage Provider) instead of CSP (Cryptographic Service Provider).

Common symptoms for certificates that use CSP include:

Smart cards not being recognized as CSP providers (Cryptographic Service Provider) in 32-bit applications
Inability to sign documents
Failures in applications relying on certificate-based authentication
Users might observe error messages such as “invalid provider type specified” and “CryptAcquireCertificatePrivateKey error.”
You can detect if your smart card will be affected by this security enforcement if, prior to installing the October 2025 Windows security update (KB5066835), the System log contains Smart Card Service or Microsoft-Windows-Smartcard-Server Event ID: 624 with the message text: “Audit: This system is using CAPI for RSA cryptography operations. Please refer to the following link for more detail: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2300823.”

Second Issue:

After installing the Windows security update released on October 14, 2025 (KB5066835), USB devices, such as keyboards and mice, do not function in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). This issue prevents navigation of any of the recovery options within WinRE. Note that the USB devices continue to work normally within the Windows operating system.

Resolution: This issue was resolved by the Windows out-of-band update, released October 20, 2025 (KB5070773), and updates released after that date. We recommend you install the latest update for your device as it contains important improvements and issue resolutions, including this one.

Workaround: If your device is impacted by this issue and is unable to boot to Windows to install the latest Windows update, you can work around this issue using one of the following methods:

If your PC has a touchscreen, you can use the touchscreen’s touch keyboard to navigate within WinRE.
If your PC has a PS/2 port, you can use a PS/2 keyboard or mouse to navigate within WinRE.
If you had previously created a USB recovery drive, you can boot your computer from the recovery drive. This will take you directly to WinRE with restored USB functionality.
OEMs and enterprises can use the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) in Configuration Manager, or can deploy push-button reset features using the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) and Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) add-on to recover affected devices.
Affected platforms:

Client: Windows 11, version 25H2; Windows 11, version 24H2
Server: Windows Server 2025

 

 

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